That's nice lore, but irrelevant with regards to Wayfarer. There have been several times that I've seen Niantic staff retire a wayspot such as a church when they were only asked to change the name. That's a big part of why I asked the question. (And to be clear, I know what some of the answers are, but I included all of the examples in hopes of getti g the kind of detailed clarification that would widely apply.)
Things like "Square" are missing in the "what is it?" field while reviewing. How is it going to influence the rating and why sometimes it's obligatory to compile.
Why is it "Select the photos that DON'T meet criteria", instead of "Select the photos that DO meet criteria"? All other types of reviews ask us to select what IS valid.
Can we get some clarification on would would be eligible/ineligible natural features?
In the last AMA it was stated some natural features may be eligible. Some examples were given, but what if there is no specified location or 'anchor'? What about things like man-made lakes? If these kinds of places are still ineligible, by what rejection criteria should they be rejected? (referring to the rejection criteria and not the rejection reasons currently on the reviewer form)
When will the reviewer form be updated to reflect the new eligibility/rejection criteria?
Since the eligibility criteria was updated to exploration/exercise/social, why does the reviewer form still ask about historic or cultural significance? When will the rejection reasons be updated to match the rejection criteria?
Can you provide some insight into the new Lightship system, and what observed behaviors are features and what are bugs?
Mostnotably people have observed that a nomination can be accepted even if it is within 20m of another nomination, and under some circumstances it will still go live in PGO. Is this intentional? Or are those nominations still supposed to be subject to the 20m proximity rule? I would hate to see people nominate new wayspots, have then accepted and appear in PGO, only to be removed after some time if this is a bug. That would be very disheartening.
Could Wayfarer be enhanced to read the map for some simple decisions?
Could Wayfarer reviewer Settings prevent a Bonus location too close to the reviewer's Home location? This could prevent many cases of the "Nothing left to review" message (often interpreted as a "cooldown"), and get more reviews done.
Could it error, in the nomination process, if an invalid location is selected (emergency services, hospitals, military bases, etc)? Preventing the nomination would: improve the database, prevent the Explorer wasting a nomination slot, avert many arguments between Explorers, AND reduce the backlogging of valid nominations.
I have a big problem getting things approved at apartment complexes - especially if it is a gazebo or something similar at an apartment complex. I have good luck getting sports fields or sports equipment approved, but I have had a pergola in voting at an apartment complex for over a year now and have had shade structures with seating in apartment complexes denied.
Would it be possible to rework the entire Upgrade Mechanic System?
For example, if the upgrade system instead became something like upgrade points you could have a market of things that could be traded or utilized for those upgrade points instead of just a single upgrade on a nomination. In theory a single Upgrade Point could still be utilized for a singular nomination upgrade but you could instead trade maybe 4 to 5 points for one additional full nomination you can submit (within a certain time frame and it doesn't affect your 7/14 submission limit). This would also enable other perks like cosmetic items agents/trainers can earn with this new stuff or even special unlocks as perks from reviewing.
Would it be possible for reviewers to be able to host Niantic affiliated Review Competitions?
I use to help host a Wayfarer Bingo Competition as part of First Saturday Events when we transitioned to the Virtual First Saturday and I would definitely be willing to create Bingo Cards that can be hosted for maybe weekly or monthly events for small rewards. This could be a follow up on my first question where you can earn Upgrade Points or special Cosmetic Items for rewards for these events. Here is a card of the Wayfarer Bingo Card as an example.
As I've told you before, if every player in our world has an iPhone or Galaxy S series and has access to LTE or other high-speed communication, you have a good idea.
I'm sure in 10 years I'll say yes.
But the reality is different.
Not everyone can afford such high-performance and high-priced smartphones.
Also, there are many parts of the world that do not even have an LTE connection.
It is important to understand that our games will be played in such environments.
Your way of thinking is the kind of small-world thinking that is common among urban dwellers in developed countries who are blessed with a good environment to play games.
If we were to incorporate your idea, it would be more appropriate to assign tasks in the game such as AR scanning, photography, and capturing for Wayspots that have been removed or modified but whose location is unclear or unknown.
This would also be an effective way to discourage players from cheating. (This is not the purpose of this article, so I won't go into it in depth.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Is there a member of your team who can understand these languages? I understand the language barrier, but that's no reason to ignore those reports of mistranslation.
I've been writing down on a (al most daily) basis my wayfarer & recon stats.
Since the 11th of August of this year (after a 4 week break) my total of Accept, Reject and Duplicate went up with 1.197 whereas my Recon badge increased with 1.457
Since there hasn't been a double-credit in the last 6 weeks I presume that this gap of 250 is Recon-credit I get for edits and photo reviews. I should check more in detail but I think these also count towards the upgrade you can earn
They announced that the edit would count, but they didn't apply it retroactively (which they didn't do either for the earned upgrades)
Good, that is a reiterative process this query, but it is understood that hacé time when sending wayspost it was only a part of ingress, the community is so desperate I sent a lot of content not appropriate for a nomination is valid, and its aim was only to increase their statistics to reach a level in one of the medals, niantic resolved to punish the community to try to get people to nominate, do it the right way, and subsequently creating is system assessment self is nourished by the community that has had good results in the beginning, that is, until a new evaluation community, that what ah echo is to cut back the quality of the wayspost and generating it impossible to remove the complaints system that presents niantic, this generating false locations of wayspost, accepting things that are stated explicitly that they should not be considered a wayspost and the desire to emulate the great cities completing wayspost throughout the area, without considering the essence of because they are the wayspost in the games of niantic, my concern is because it is not re-put in-line the medal seer in ingress for new generations to get it since it does not affect in any way the new way of how it works wayfarer in the present and in the new quality of wayspost
Another query is working or is to work on improving the system of complaints of wayspost invalid, since the current is not working properly, because the wayspost in educational institutions are not removed, or wayspost not existing are not removed properly, and ends up being a lottery if they are or not
The new ruling on cycle routes has angered a lot of people in the uk. The blue NCN road signs are literally everywhere. There are 4 tiers of signage, and until recently only the top tier was being accepted.
1. Large artistic 3D signs, commonly known as fishtails.
2. Highlight named trails created by the NCN for being safe, historical, beautiful, scenic etc. Often on dedicated trails, away from roads. Will probably have info boards, places and things to do en route.
3. Numbered routes. Often on main roads, no cycle lanes (so cycling among the vehicles). Their purpose is to link towns.
4. Side routes. Not part of the network, but similar blue signs pointing to the network. Indicated on the sign by brackets.
Tiers 2-4 have identical blue metal signs. There are billions of them, and are everywhere.
Please could we get a compromise with the "need more stops" reviewers, and say tier 2 should now be included. But tier 3 and 4 are a no. It feels by many who spend a lot of time hunting for the hidden gems that the new ruling is an insult, as these street signs are generic, the numbered routes are cycle routes and not trails, and the signs are in their millions.
You point in 3. is very misleading. 95% of the Routes/trails will never hit a major road. NCN always uses the safest routes for all people. Check the link for the design principles.
Can you please clarify - are Red Telephone Boxes (UK) fully eligible now?
It seems like we are all screaming out for a definitive list / stickied post that is a regularly updated forum list of fully acceptable criteria that people can all refer to. Maybe some selected users (Moderators) who can manage this? (see example below)
It's not user-friendly to search to forums for answers to criteria related questions either. I can't go by the Wayfarer list as this is constantly being challenged on the forum too with Niantic input that doesn't update the list.
For Example like below where everything is listed and you can click on a 'header' title and it give more information/clarification on what's acceptable which can be updated and we referred too as the 'official list':
"Sports Fields" would include (at least) any of these, regardless of whether or not they happen to be in Niantic's pulldown list:
baseball
football (american soccer)
football (american football)
tennis
rugby
cricket
paintball
bocce
horseshoes
lawn bowling
pickleball
volleyball
basketball
badminton
... and on and on, including games that have not even been invented yet
It's fairly-well impossible for Niantic to make a comprehensive list and still keep the rules "simple". One of my personal bugaboos is the "paintball" field, which keeps getting flagged as "inappropriate" or "pedestrian access" and other nonsense reasons. Also that the picture is subjectively "ugly" because the location itself was subjectively ugly, so also rolling my eyes at THAT...
Or, should that artistic/cultural/historic criteria be added back in? It seems like that's really the category for a lot of public art, architecture, and other features that people enjoy and actually want to discover.
On the Wayfarer forum, making a post or comment with an embedded image causes the post/comment to become invisible and go into a moderation approval queue where such posts often aren't approved for hours or sometimes even days (especially on weekends). Can this restriction be removed, as it severely hinders conversations and does not exist on other Niantic forums, such as Ingress and HPWU?
Often times an image or screenshot is the best way to illustrate something, such as advice or an example, and using an image and having your post or comment censored for hours or days at a time can often make that content irrelevant to the conversation by the time the comment with a photo gets approved. This severely dampers conversations and stifles effective communication on the forum.
Strangely, the limitation only applies to photos that are embedded using the photo button, but not to photos that are attached using the paperclip button, which frankly makes no sense.
We have been told several times this year that extra staff was being hired specifically to give this forum more attention, and yet after multiple recent posts on this topic such as this one, the issue remains prevalent.
Additionally, there is a lesser criticized but similar issue where making an innocuous edit to a post or comment, such as fixing a typo, can sometimes cause the comment or post to get sent to the same moderation queue where posts are ignored for days at a time.
So my point that a large portion of the network is on roads, and not dedicated cycle trail is correct. I know a few even on dual carriage ways. I and many many people want clarification, as at the moment we cannot believe that Niantic has lowered the bar THIS low.
If a wayspot is accepted, but doesn't go into Ingress because it's too close to an existing wayspot... Does it exist on Lightship?
IOW: If a wayspot shows as Accepted on our Nominations page, but an Ingress email said it was "too close to another wayspot to come live at this time"... what if the situation changes, say a year later?
If the first-existing wayspot is removed, or relocated, will the accepted-but-too-close wayspot appear?
It's super exciting seeing all of these questions coming in (... and some non-questions haha). Just a reminder that voting will be activated this week at which point you'll be able to review all of the questions and vote for the ones that call to you the most. A quick clarification, any of the reactions to posts i.e. Insightful, Disagree, Like, etc. will not count as a vote.
@NianticTintino For all previous AMAs, the questions chosen have been based on the number of likes received on the forum. Is that not how voting will work this time around? It seems pretty clear that the entire community thought that that was the intention here again, and if that isn't the case, that is a very poor error in communication, and probably not the way to get the questions going in this particular AMA. Especially given how many people have already expressed their intended votes with likes.
@NianticTintino Adding on to what I said above, assuming the old way of conducting voting for AMAs is not being used, the idea of you taking the questions, reading through them, condensing/organizing them, and setting them up for voting is a MASSIVE amount of time wasted, that could just be spent answering additional questions. If you are going to take the time to do that, you aren't really just explicitly answering the top 15, you are arbitrarily yet intentionally ignoring the rest. An AMA isn't supposed to be some hyper structured thing in the first place. The fact that there is an arbitrary number of questions that get answered is not how an AMA should even work. Its supposed to be an "ask me anything", not a "ask me a limited arbitrary number of things because we can't manage to answer all of your questions because you have so many as a result of us not interacting with you in the past year".
Comments
That's nice lore, but irrelevant with regards to Wayfarer. There have been several times that I've seen Niantic staff retire a wayspot such as a church when they were only asked to change the name. That's a big part of why I asked the question. (And to be clear, I know what some of the answers are, but I included all of the examples in hopes of getti g the kind of detailed clarification that would widely apply.)
Things like "Square" are missing in the "what is it?" field while reviewing. How is it going to influence the rating and why sometimes it's obligatory to compile.
Why is it "Select the photos that DON'T meet criteria", instead of "Select the photos that DO meet criteria"? All other types of reviews ask us to select what IS valid.
Can we get some clarification on would would be eligible/ineligible natural features?
In the last AMA it was stated some natural features may be eligible. Some examples were given, but what if there is no specified location or 'anchor'? What about things like man-made lakes? If these kinds of places are still ineligible, by what rejection criteria should they be rejected? (referring to the rejection criteria and not the rejection reasons currently on the reviewer form)
When will the reviewer form be updated to reflect the new eligibility/rejection criteria?
Since the eligibility criteria was updated to exploration/exercise/social, why does the reviewer form still ask about historic or cultural significance? When will the rejection reasons be updated to match the rejection criteria?
Can you provide some insight into the new Lightship system, and what observed behaviors are features and what are bugs?
Most notably people have observed that a nomination can be accepted even if it is within 20m of another nomination, and under some circumstances it will still go live in PGO. Is this intentional? Or are those nominations still supposed to be subject to the 20m proximity rule? I would hate to see people nominate new wayspots, have then accepted and appear in PGO, only to be removed after some time if this is a bug. That would be very disheartening.
How will we know if a social place (food court, for example) is a good point of interest?
Could Wayfarer be enhanced to read the map for some simple decisions?
I have a big problem getting things approved at apartment complexes - especially if it is a gazebo or something similar at an apartment complex. I have good luck getting sports fields or sports equipment approved, but I have had a pergola in voting at an apartment complex for over a year now and have had shade structures with seating in apartment complexes denied.
Would it be possible to rework the entire Upgrade Mechanic System?
For example, if the upgrade system instead became something like upgrade points you could have a market of things that could be traded or utilized for those upgrade points instead of just a single upgrade on a nomination. In theory a single Upgrade Point could still be utilized for a singular nomination upgrade but you could instead trade maybe 4 to 5 points for one additional full nomination you can submit (within a certain time frame and it doesn't affect your 7/14 submission limit). This would also enable other perks like cosmetic items agents/trainers can earn with this new stuff or even special unlocks as perks from reviewing.
Would it be possible for reviewers to be able to host Niantic affiliated Review Competitions?
I use to help host a Wayfarer Bingo Competition as part of First Saturday Events when we transitioned to the Virtual First Saturday and I would definitely be willing to create Bingo Cards that can be hosted for maybe weekly or monthly events for small rewards. This could be a follow up on my first question where you can earn Upgrade Points or special Cosmetic Items for rewards for these events. Here is a card of the Wayfarer Bingo Card as an example.
As I've told you before, if every player in our world has an iPhone or Galaxy S series and has access to LTE or other high-speed communication, you have a good idea.
I'm sure in 10 years I'll say yes.
But the reality is different.
Not everyone can afford such high-performance and high-priced smartphones.
Also, there are many parts of the world that do not even have an LTE connection.
It is important to understand that our games will be played in such environments.
Your way of thinking is the kind of small-world thinking that is common among urban dwellers in developed countries who are blessed with a good environment to play games.
If we were to incorporate your idea, it would be more appropriate to assign tasks in the game such as AR scanning, photography, and capturing for Wayspots that have been removed or modified but whose location is unclear or unknown.
This would also be an effective way to discourage players from cheating. (This is not the purpose of this article, so I won't go into it in depth.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Reports of mistranslation regarding criteria and review pages have been left unanswered for months. For example,
Germany
Brazil
Japan
Thai
Is there a member of your team who can understand these languages? I understand the language barrier, but that's no reason to ignore those reports of mistranslation.
@MargariteDVille-ING I know there were double-count moments.
I've been writing down on a (al most daily) basis my wayfarer & recon stats.
Since the 11th of August of this year (after a 4 week break) my total of Accept, Reject and Duplicate went up with 1.197 whereas my Recon badge increased with 1.457
Since there hasn't been a double-credit in the last 6 weeks I presume that this gap of 250 is Recon-credit I get for edits and photo reviews. I should check more in detail but I think these also count towards the upgrade you can earn
They announced that the edit would count, but they didn't apply it retroactively (which they didn't do either for the earned upgrades)
Good, that is a reiterative process this query, but it is understood that hacé time when sending wayspost it was only a part of ingress, the community is so desperate I sent a lot of content not appropriate for a nomination is valid, and its aim was only to increase their statistics to reach a level in one of the medals, niantic resolved to punish the community to try to get people to nominate, do it the right way, and subsequently creating is system assessment self is nourished by the community that has had good results in the beginning, that is, until a new evaluation community, that what ah echo is to cut back the quality of the wayspost and generating it impossible to remove the complaints system that presents niantic, this generating false locations of wayspost, accepting things that are stated explicitly that they should not be considered a wayspost and the desire to emulate the great cities completing wayspost throughout the area, without considering the essence of because they are the wayspost in the games of niantic, my concern is because it is not re-put in-line the medal seer in ingress for new generations to get it since it does not affect in any way the new way of how it works wayfarer in the present and in the new quality of wayspost
Another query is working or is to work on improving the system of complaints of wayspost invalid, since the current is not working properly, because the wayspost in educational institutions are not removed, or wayspost not existing are not removed properly, and ends up being a lottery if they are or not
The new ruling on cycle routes has angered a lot of people in the uk. The blue NCN road signs are literally everywhere. There are 4 tiers of signage, and until recently only the top tier was being accepted.
1. Large artistic 3D signs, commonly known as fishtails.
2. Highlight named trails created by the NCN for being safe, historical, beautiful, scenic etc. Often on dedicated trails, away from roads. Will probably have info boards, places and things to do en route.
3. Numbered routes. Often on main roads, no cycle lanes (so cycling among the vehicles). Their purpose is to link towns.
4. Side routes. Not part of the network, but similar blue signs pointing to the network. Indicated on the sign by brackets.
Tiers 2-4 have identical blue metal signs. There are billions of them, and are everywhere.
Please could we get a compromise with the "need more stops" reviewers, and say tier 2 should now be included. But tier 3 and 4 are a no. It feels by many who spend a lot of time hunting for the hidden gems that the new ruling is an insult, as these street signs are generic, the numbered routes are cycle routes and not trails, and the signs are in their millions.
Thanks.
You point in 3. is very misleading. 95% of the Routes/trails will never hit a major road. NCN always uses the safest routes for all people. Check the link for the design principles.
https://www.sustrans.org.uk/for-professionals/infrastructure/national-cycle-network-design-principles/
@NianticTintino Could the off topic messages (and answers) be deleted or moved away from the thread?
The voting system favors the early questions and off topic messages make the situation even worse. And yes, please delete this comment as well. :D
Hi!
I donate blood regularly, and I would like to know if the permanent blood donation center is eligible regarding POI.
Thx !
It's not user-friendly to search to forums for answers to criteria related questions either. I can't go by the Wayfarer list as this is constantly being challenged on the forum too with Niantic input that doesn't update the list.
For Example like below where everything is listed and you can click on a 'header' title and it give more information/clarification on what's acceptable which can be updated and we referred too as the 'official list':
Examples of Wayspot categories
-----------------------------------------------------
Parks and plazas
Gardens
Forests
[Hiking trails] ➡️
Biking trails
Exercise equipment in public spaces
Sport arenas
[Sport fields] ➡️
[Historic plaques] ➡️
[Unique Art or Architecture] ➡️
Public Libraries
Public places of worship
Zoos
Museums and galleries
Community gardens
Historical gravestones
Nature signs
Unusual or unique local shops
Since the Wayfarer database is community driven, can changes in criteria also be community driven?
Check with top-reviewers and top-submitters what their opinion is
"Sports Fields" would include (at least) any of these, regardless of whether or not they happen to be in Niantic's pulldown list:
It's fairly-well impossible for Niantic to make a comprehensive list and still keep the rules "simple". One of my personal bugaboos is the "paintball" field, which keeps getting flagged as "inappropriate" or "pedestrian access" and other nonsense reasons. Also that the picture is subjectively "ugly" because the location itself was subjectively ugly, so also rolling my eyes at THAT...
Or, should that artistic/cultural/historic criteria be added back in? It seems like that's really the category for a lot of public art, architecture, and other features that people enjoy and actually want to discover.
On the Wayfarer forum, making a post or comment with an embedded image causes the post/comment to become invisible and go into a moderation approval queue where such posts often aren't approved for hours or sometimes even days (especially on weekends). Can this restriction be removed, as it severely hinders conversations and does not exist on other Niantic forums, such as Ingress and HPWU?
Often times an image or screenshot is the best way to illustrate something, such as advice or an example, and using an image and having your post or comment censored for hours or days at a time can often make that content irrelevant to the conversation by the time the comment with a photo gets approved. This severely dampers conversations and stifles effective communication on the forum.
Strangely, the limitation only applies to photos that are embedded using the photo button, but not to photos that are attached using the paperclip button, which frankly makes no sense.
We have been told several times this year that extra staff was being hired specifically to give this forum more attention, and yet after multiple recent posts on this topic such as this one, the issue remains prevalent.
Additionally, there is a lesser criticized but similar issue where making an innocuous edit to a post or comment, such as fixing a typo, can sometimes cause the comment or post to get sent to the same moderation queue where posts are ignored for days at a time.
Yellow = off road.
Blue = on roads.
So my point that a large portion of the network is on roads, and not dedicated cycle trail is correct. I know a few even on dual carriage ways. I and many many people want clarification, as at the moment we cannot believe that Niantic has lowered the bar THIS low.
If a wayspot is accepted, but doesn't go into Ingress because it's too close to an existing wayspot... Does it exist on Lightship?
IOW: If a wayspot shows as Accepted on our Nominations page, but an Ingress email said it was "too close to another wayspot to come live at this time"... what if the situation changes, say a year later?
If the first-existing wayspot is removed, or relocated, will the accepted-but-too-close wayspot appear?
Hello Explorers,
It's super exciting seeing all of these questions coming in (... and some non-questions haha). Just a reminder that voting will be activated this week at which point you'll be able to review all of the questions and vote for the ones that call to you the most. A quick clarification, any of the reactions to posts i.e. Insightful, Disagree, Like, etc. will not count as a vote.
Insightful, Disagree, Like, etc. will not count as a vote.
How will the voting process work? Is it something baked into Vanilla Forums or will there be a separate form to vote for things on?
Will similar/same questions be grouped together so duplicate questions don't take up multiple spots?
@NianticTintino For all previous AMAs, the questions chosen have been based on the number of likes received on the forum. Is that not how voting will work this time around? It seems pretty clear that the entire community thought that that was the intention here again, and if that isn't the case, that is a very poor error in communication, and probably not the way to get the questions going in this particular AMA. Especially given how many people have already expressed their intended votes with likes.
@NianticTintino Adding on to what I said above, assuming the old way of conducting voting for AMAs is not being used, the idea of you taking the questions, reading through them, condensing/organizing them, and setting them up for voting is a MASSIVE amount of time wasted, that could just be spent answering additional questions. If you are going to take the time to do that, you aren't really just explicitly answering the top 15, you are arbitrarily yet intentionally ignoring the rest. An AMA isn't supposed to be some hyper structured thing in the first place. The fact that there is an arbitrary number of questions that get answered is not how an AMA should even work. Its supposed to be an "ask me anything", not a "ask me a limited arbitrary number of things because we can't manage to answer all of your questions because you have so many as a result of us not interacting with you in the past year".